BERLIN — Germany’s authority for youth protection — the Jugendschutzbehörde — has now declared that online retailers can’t sell sexually explicit ebooks before 10 p.m.
Implementation of the rule comes as a result of litigation over the book, “Schlauchgelüste,” or “Pantyhose Cravings.”
According to a report in Heise.de, the federal youth protection agency decided that a 2002 law that limited physical adult cinema should be applied to adult ebooks.
The application of the law, intended to protect minors from accessing the category and imposing up to 50,000-euro fines for violators, now limits the sale of adult ebooks online between the local German hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
German officials haven’t yet disclosed how they will enforce the law, particularly because the web allows access to booksellers overseas.